“Because the pain is old, so is the
cure…”, “Relieve the pain because she remembers.” In the essay written by Duncan
it felt like the mother the entire time was never actually suffering the pain
of her disease, but the pain of her identity and history. The mother was always
constantly reminded of her difference, and the opinions and biases that others
hold of this mother’s difference; talking to her like she is a toddler because
they assume she doesn’t speak good English, presuming racial stereotypes, and
only remembering the story of her ‘rescue’ and the wars. The disease this woman
suffers isn’t what seems to be Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia, but the
disease of stigma and stereotypes. The disease of stereotypes even exists
outside of racial prejudices; it can be applied to gender, sexuality,
socioeconomic class, etc. This disease stereotypes individuals based on surface
values, and the disease causes us to treat them accordingly to these prescribed
standards and stereotypes, where you cannot escape them, even if they do not
hold true, it is just as how you appear (just as how the mother actually spoke
English, but no one would accept, or let her speak English because they had
prescribed this stereotype, and this stereotype was to be held constant once it
had be assigned). This mother’s disease went deeper than a simple diagnosis and
prescription of drugs, the true disease lies in society, where we treat others
poorly based on prejudices, stereotypes, and history, even when none of these
may hold true.
In Powell’s essay history was
spoken about in the aspect of the ghosts of past people, not in the literal
sense of ghost like the blood curdling horror movies like Paranormal Activity, but the remnants of the people who once lived
where we do now; the lives that these people lived, the languages that they
spoke, and their overall way of lives with their individual stories. Colonially
speaking, ‘Americans’ came and overthrew these ways of lives, and histories, and
what was left was ghosts, the ghosts of the Native Americans. These histories
and ways of life were lost and are not recognized in education, the educations
we receive in schools are lies; we do not receive the honest truths with the
implementation of the ghost stories. In the Powell’s essay I really liked the
quote, “tattooing…[is] a way of rewriting trails across the signifying space of
my body.” Tattoos are a permanent way to mark your body with the stories,
histories, and ghosts that you want to tell. I personally really liked this
because I too have the ghosts of my own stories and trails marked on my skin. I
have stories of my grandparents in Yugoslavia, and I have my own personal
struggles marked on me. Overall I think these ghosts need to be remembered,
these stories are lost (making them this ghostly figures), but I want an honest
education (in which Powell suggests), I want my education to be fully rounded
with the multidimensional sided stories that aren’t swayed by the lies of our
ancestors.
“Maintaining this wartime morality
where being queer and female is as warrior as we can get” (Moraga, 24). In Loving in the War Years, the author
Moraga expressed her struggle of being Chicana, yet appearing white, and also
her struggles with her own sexuality (in the sense of self acceptance, and
oppression). I personally really thought the book was beautiful, I have never
read a literature written about a woman who is lesbian’s personal experiences,
let alone the struggles of the race/culture influencing this. When reading the
book, I thought it was enlightening to see how see feels about women, for years
society has projected to use that if you are not heterosexual you love
differently, but reading Moraga’s words, I realized that society is wrong. We
do not love differently, we all get the same rush of the same feelings when we
see or hug the person we love (in Moraga’s case this was Joyce). I also thought
Moraga’s words about her struggles of being both a lesbian and mixed race was
interesting, for me being neither I scarcely think about the struggles of both.
I have a close personal friend who is both mixed race, and bisexual, and when
she spoke of the difficulties it was hard for me to understand what she was
explicitly talking about. But from reading Moraga’s novel I understand that in
some instances a culture has it’s own ways, and then they being of a different
race you are treated differently because of this, but in Moraga’s case looking
white, she got to witness her family being treated differently, and struggled
with wanting to accept her race, or ignore her race so she too would not have
to suffer. Moraga also did this with her sexuality; she repressed and internalizes
the pain without expression due to the fear. My close and personal friend, who
is bisexual and mixed race (though appears white), has talked about her
siblings looking more African American than her, and always being treated
differently, and not wanting to talk to her family about her sexuality because
of the fear of not being accepted. Hearing Moraga’s words had me understand the
reasons why my friend wouldn’t be expressive of both her race and sexuality,
and internalize the pain of not expressing these, it actually touched me that
someone could be in so much pain for thing that are so much themselves.
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